News, facts, musings and opinions, and current legal events in Delaware.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Anonymity and Social Responsibility

I began this entry with thoughts of advising the public of the laws against using license plate frames that cover any portion of the plate. I will eventually get around to some of that. But in doing some research for that topic, I discovered products on the market designed to obscure license plate numbers in ways that I was not previously aware.

I found sites that sell products specifically designed to distort the view of the number or hide the number from photography. (I refuse to place the links to the sites here because I do not want to promote illegal acts, or even to increase traffic to sites that promote illegal acts) There were claims on those sites that their products are legal, even a copy of a news broadcast with a study conducted by the Denver Police Department demonstrating the effectiveness of these products.

Much of the propaganda used to sell these products say that you should use these products to prevent getting a ticket. I suggest to you instead, that you should avoid breaking the traffic laws to avoid getting a ticket. Much to my chagrin, the increased population and mobile aspects to our society lend to these types of efforts to remain anonymous in the violation of our safety laws, and in so doing attempt to clothe oneself with the illusion that the laws don't apply.

Responsibility for our actions doesn't just attach when we are caught, it should come from our own morality and acceptance of the sacrifices that we each must make to live in an orderly world with other people.

As with anything however, that concept can be taken too far. Balance is the key.

I quickly then flipped through the Delaware Code to find what I recalled as being a pretty basic prohibition against covering up the data on the plate, and found much more.

Our code seems to be up to date on these issues and thoroughly prohibit using and selling all such obscuring materials, even if they are not apparent to the naked eye.

21 Del.C. 2126

...

(c) No number plate, or any portion thereof, shall be coveredwith any tinted material, nor shall any other material be placedon or around a number plate which would conceal and/or obscureany information contained thereon, including the registrationexpiration sticker. Plate frames that do not conceal and/orobscure any information contained on the plate, including theregistration expiration sticker, are not prohibited by thissection.

(d) Whoever violates subsections (a), (b) or (c) of thissection shall be fined not less than $25 nor more than $50.

(e) It shall be unlawful to sell, offer to sell, transfer,possess or use any kind of device, product, plate cover, orobject, including any image altering device or spray, for thepurpose of hindering, inhibiting, impeding, impairing, orpreventing the photographing, recording or imaging of a licenseplate in connection with the enforcement of this motor vehiclecode or any local or municipal traffic laws. Any person convictedof a violation of this subsection shall, for the first offense, befined not less than $50 nor more than $1,000. For each subsequentviolation occurring within 3 years of the date of the originalviolation, the person shall be fined not less than $200 nor morethan $2,000.

(f) It shall be unlawful to sell any license plate cover or framewhich would violate subsection (c) of this section if placed on aDelaware license plate unless the seller posts a sign in close proximityto the product which states clearly and conspicuously to the public thatit is illegal to place the license plate cover or frame on Delawarelicense plates. Any person convicted of a violation of this section shallbe fined not less than $50 and not more than $100 and shall payrestitution to the purchaser of the license plate cover or frame in theamount of ten times the purchase price.

The Newark City Code differs from the State Code significantly on several points. But I will save that for another discussion.

I frequently hear folks say . . . " I see these things all over, so I assumed they were legal". Well, all I can tell you is there are a lot of people violating these laws. The police tell me that they are bringing them in, one at a time.